| 18. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with vayomer {וַיֹּ֛אמֶר | wāyōmer} ‘and he said’, employing the vav-consecutive Qal imperfect to advance the narrative. It presents a protasis introduced by im {אִם | ʾim} ‘if’, specifying motives with the prepositional complements le-shalom {לְשָׁלוֹם | lə-šālôm} ‘for peace’ and le-milchamah {לְמִלְחָמָה | lə-milḥāmāh} ‘for war’. The verb yatsa’u {יָצָאוּ | yāṣāʼû} ‘they went out’ occurs in both conditions, creating parallelism. The apodosis uses the Qal imperfect tifse’um {תִּפְשׂוּם | tippəšûm} with jussive force, modified by chayyim {חַיִּים | ḥayyîm} functioning adverbially ‘alive’. The asyndetic repetition of chayyim intensifies the unexpected command to take captives rather than kill them. English mirrors the protasis–apodosis conditional structure and preserves the imperative mood. |